


Clarity

by DarkEmeralds



Category: Firefly
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-03-21
Updated: 2005-03-21
Packaged: 2017-10-08 07:53:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/74369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkEmeralds/pseuds/DarkEmeralds
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fic challenge on LJ: imagine a Firefly character waking up as a vampire.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Clarity

She looked around her room. Some memory lingered of having slept and woken here before, many times, but it was only a blur of emotion. Mad ravings.

Mostly, she remembered the pale stranger on Paquin who had taken her in his arms and drained the madness out, eight point six seconds, or maybe a little more, and replaced it with this clarity.

_I sleep in a metal coffin_ she thought, _and the sun never rises_. What the hands of blue had attempted, the pale stranger had perfected, and thoughts came to her now, clear and distinct. No longer the jumbled murmurings and disjointed images when she lived here, but shining threads of sound and feeling.

_People_, she thought.

A hard, cold ball of hatred, delicious like an ice planet, coalescing in the heart of the man now pacing in the cargo bay. He had found her, put useless bullets into the stranger, too late, and borne her body back here, back to its little coffin. She thought she might not like that much bitterness. Not right away.

But there, next to the throbbing engine: such a tender, broken heart beating, trembling like a bird, sweet and so warm, rocking, rocking. That one... she smiled. Hungry. She was hungry. Time to eat. _River, you have to eat._

She flung away the sheet covering her cold body, looked at one arm, turned and put her feet on the floor. Perfect toes. This body wore a red dress, but there were prettier things up above, in the shuttle, there with the rich sorrow in the blood of the beauty who was already dying.

That one could come with her. Join her. Show her the worlds she had never had a chance to know. She would offer that one the ice planet to eat, and then they would dress up and go out together, through the sparkling stars.

The pious murmurings of a mind engaged in fearful prayer buzzed into her awareness and she swatted it away. He had been kind to her once. She remembered that, too. He would do for later.

Someone woke and began singing through her mind like the high keening of an engine pushed too hard. A raging river of grief, crouching just there outside her door, pooling now into hopeless exhaustion. That one. _Brother_, she thought. He could not consign her body to space--would not let anyone do it--could not let go.

Now he wouldn't have to. She smiled and slid the door silently open. "Simon?"

He lifted his face, astonished, terrified. Rose slowly and took her into his arms, weeping. "_Mei-mei_ was all he said, over and and over, his heart wild and erratic. "I can't." There was a clatter of wood on the metal floor behind her. "I can't."

"It's all right, Simon. Shh...it's okay. It's okay. It's okay." His neck was salty from his tears, and his blood was hot as it filled her throat. He cried out in anguish and submission, just the way she had always imagined. He sagged, the heartbeat beginning to slow. Then he tensed, struggled feebly. Whispered, "Mal, no!"

Her brother staggered back gasping from her arms as the stake went into her heart, deep and sudden. _Dust_, she thought. _I wanted to see the stars again_.


End file.
